


the lee

by auxanges



Series: Polyswap Promptfest Pickings [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Established Relationship, Humanstuck, M/M, Multi, Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22256032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auxanges/pseuds/auxanges
Summary: “Agh! Tits!”“Absence thereof,” you call back.“Something bit me!” Sollux yells again, and you and Dave exchange a quizzical look.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Eridan Ampora/Sollux Captor/Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Sollux Captor/Dave Strider, Sollux Captor/Karkat Vantas
Series: Polyswap Promptfest Pickings [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602049
Kudos: 63
Collections: Polyswap Winter Promptfest - Dusk Edition





	the lee

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [SleepingDragons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingDragons/pseuds/SleepingDragons) in the [Polyswap_Winter_Promptfest_Dusk_2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Polyswap_Winter_Promptfest_Dusk_2020) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Magic AU. Existing poly triad DaveSolKat meets actual merman Eridan. 
> 
> I don't have as much of a defined idea for this one, so you can go wild and do whatever.

There’s no reason for any of you to be on the beach, when you really think about it. Between the three of you, you have one boyfriend who hates any body of water past mid-calf, one boyfriend who burns if he looks at a picture of the Sun for too long, and you, poster boy for anti-beach bod.

“I dunno about that,” Dave says, slapping you on the back. It stings through your shirt. “You put the bum in beach bum.”

You slap him back, and watch him wince. You must have hit a sunburn. Again. “Just like you put the shithead in freezing water.”

“Is it silent? Cause last I checked there’s no shithead in freezing water.”

“Not yet,” you reply conspiratorially to Sollux, whose cackle is cut off with a yelp when Dave trips him into the surf.

While he sputters and splashes around like a kindergartner, the two of you start your usual hunt for shells and sea glass: there’s no real competition involved, mostly just seeing how many different colours you can get. Before you all got together, it was a good excuse for you to touch hands, like a little band of repressed schoolgirls. You’re what you like to consider a real mature bunch.

“Agh! Tits!”

Scratch that. “Absence thereof,” you call back.

“Something bit me!” Sollux yells again, and you and Dave exchange a quizzical look. You ride the Wiki wave all the way to your beach outings—there’s nothing on this stretch of shore that should be biting, at least at this hour.

Sollux does not seem to care. He kicks out his feet like a Rockette reject until you hear another yell, this one distinctly not from your boyfriend.

Dave’s already halfway to him, and you’re left sprinting after six feet and change of fight-or-flight who insists he would be terrible at lifeguarding or anything remotely responsible for another human. (Aside, you guess, from the two he’s dating.)

By the time you reach them, huffing, Sollux and Dave are both staring at a dark form in the shallows. “What? Fucking move, since you have the courtesy to still have all your limbs.”

The form rasps, “Fuck me, I think you broke it.”

The three of you scream like, if you will pardon the reuse of a simile, repressed schoolgirls.

The next wave knocks you on your asses, face-to-something with the entity Sollux accidentally beat up. You all kind of stare at it: it’s rubbing its jaw, moving it gingerly side to side.

Dave finds his words first, to your chagrin. “Dude, your first fight and it’s with a goddamn mermaid.”

“I hate everything about this,” Sollux groans, digging the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“I’m not crazy about it either,” says the mermaid. It – he – raises himself up a little higher; purple freckles line his shoulders and collarbones, along with most of his face and his—

“He’s got fins,” you creak, reaching out before you mentally smack yourself. “I mean. Those are fins. Attached to you. I’m sure you know about them.”

He flicks water off them at you. “Thanks for the bio lesson, kid.”

“I’m not a kid,” you reply immediately, an ingrained reflex established since college graduation.

The mermaid lets out a sound that, if you were to guess, is supposed to be a laugh. It offers a full-body shiver instead. “Everyone’s a kid to me.”

From the way he eyes you all, though, you don’t think that’s completely true. Even Sollux manages to unhook his shoulders from his ears as he asks, “Got a name along with the attitude problem?”

“Eridan,” says the mermaid—again, you think that’s what he says. It has a few vocalizations that you hear with your ribcage instead of your usual auditory processes. You should be scared; you’re leaning in closer. “And that’s big talk for someone who clocked me in the jaw.”

He opens and closes it a few times, and you’re all privy to several rows of teeth.

“Yeah, no fucking shit, you bit me! I’m amazed I’m not exsanguinating all over your little reef bed here, buddy!”

In order to save Sollux’s tongue from going numb, you step in. “Sorry on behalf of both my partners,” you say.

“I’m doing fine,” Dave interrupts.

“Can it, Dave.” You continue. “Did you actually bite him?”

“Oh, probably,” Eridan answers with a shrug. “This place has shite visibility. It was either a test bite or a little tickle behind the knees.”

“On land, we call that second base.”

“Dave, I swear to God.”

Eridan lets out that not-laugh sound again. “Say I believe you. What’s first encounter material?”

“Oh, we defect to KK for that,” says Sollux. He’s taken up a cross-legged position in the water, of all things. “Karkat, explain to the nice fish what we can expect from this little meetcute.”

“I’d rather show him,” you and Dave say simultaneously.

The sharky teeth make a reappearance. “Deal. First, lemme get my sea glass collection. That little loser pile is depressin me.”

“Aw, you and Sollux already have something in common.”

“David. Really.”


End file.
